At the turn of the millennium, the "Östliche Innenstadt" district was still a high-density, densely populated neighborhood with a problematic social structure and many deficits in the infrastructure, from a lack of green spaces and play areas to a lack of meeting places and childcare facilities. However, from 2000 to 2013, the city of Offenbach am Main subjected the district to a fundamental renewal with the help of the federal and state Social City program - "Hessische Gemeinschaftsinitiative Soziale Stadt" (HEGISS). In doing so, it is giving the heterogeneous inner-city district between Bismarckstrasse and the River Main a new development perspective with urban planning, economic and social impulses.
A 72-page brochure designed by Agnes Stockmann and written by Jörg Muthorst, published by Offenbach City Council and the Office for Urban Planning, Transport and Construction Management in collaboration with the Office for Public Relations, now documents this development process. It takes stock of this urban renewal, which is one of the largest and most successful projects of the HEGISS program and has attracted nationwide attention with its "lighthouse project", the Ostpol business incubator.
Based on reports, interviews and many pictures, author Jörg Muthorst creates a multifaceted portrait of the traditional district, which has developed from the village-like, petit-bourgeois beginnings of Offenbach's winding old town into an industrial working-class neighborhood. The district has always reflected Offenbach's economic and social structural change and has always been attractive for company founders and migrant workers.
The author talks to politicians and urban planners, neighbourhood managers and residents of the district, introduces stakeholders and projects and shows the various adjustments that have been made in order to socially stabilize an entire district.
The city of Offenbach has broken new ground and developed an innovative model. Even the then new HEGISS funding program sees urban renewal not only as an urban development process, but also as a social one. However, the focus remains on urban development funding. Offenbach has gone far beyond this. The city has consistently taken the integrative approach of the program to its logical conclusion and developed it into a highly regarded holistic and interdisciplinary "Integrated Action Concept".
According to this concept, all fields of action, from employment and economic development to urban development, traffic, regulatory and integration policy, youth and social work and neighborhood management, are interlinked. In line with this basic idea, numerous stakeholders are involved in the district, many citizens, especially children and young people, are involved in projects and, in addition to HEGISS, funding from other programs has also been used.
The eastern inner city has been called Mathildenviertel since 2010. The city has transformed the riverbank into an attractive park. Some streets, where not only the municipality itself has built and creative people or, as in the "Lichtpol", students have settled, are hardly recognizable. Private owners have renovated their houses, investors have closed gaps between buildings.
School playgrounds have been turned into public playgrounds, new green links lead to the banks of the Main. A new daycare center, structurally and pedagogically linked to the elementary school, has developed into a lively meeting place. The Ostpol start-up campus with its neighborhood hall offers space for creativity and encounters, and the district office is a central point of contact where residents are encouraged to take the initiative, bringing together a variety of projects and social initiatives.
"The change is tangible," say the people who live here. The district, in which around 12,500 people from many nations live together in a small area, has not only changed its face. It has also taken on a new identity and is gradually developing into a sought-after residential area.
The brochure "At home in the Mathildenviertel" is available for a nominal charge of two euros from the OF-Infocenter on Salzgässchen.